Engineering and biological aspects of the screens for OTEC intake systems. Final report, September 15, 1976-September 14, 1977

The Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion concept requires large quantities of warm surface water and cold deep water to be passed through heat exchangers. The water intakes can suck in large quantities of fish, plant life and debris. This material must not be allowed to clog the heat exchangers; so, it must be screened and removed from the fluid flow, continuously, somewhere between the water intakes and the heat exchangers. It is recommended to provide sumps upstream from the pumps for both the warm and cold water circuits. State of the art traveling screens can be selected as standard items to operate in the sumps. Material that lodges on the screens can be removed almost continuously, stored, processed and taken to another location for disposal. Large opening gratings should be installed at the water intakes to keep out large animals. A deep ocean fish sampler is recommended for surveying the types of fish and material that will present a problem to OTEC plants, in an economical way, with fluid flow patterns that will approximate an OTEC plant at smaller scale. A general survey is presented of the biological organisms to be encountered by OTEC plants in geographical regions that are candidatemore » areas for such plants.« less